Mining planer for use in a gallery traversed by a fault



Aug. 19, 1958 K. BRAND! ETAL 2,848,204

MINING PLANER FOR USE IN A GALLERY TRAVERSED BY A FAULT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1Filed Jan. 8, 1954 I an: nan-n.

INVENTORS: KARL BRAND! WULFF ROSLER BY W g- 1958 K. BRAND! ET AL2,843,204

MINING PLANER FOR USE IN A GALLERY TRAVERSED BY A FAULT Filed Jan. 8,1954 2 Shets-Sheet 2 22 F l 6. 2b 30 I i L l I m I. "u I I I NH LE 5%"2/EEP 57+. Q (Em u INVENTORS: KARL BRA/V0 -W(/ZFF R031 5/6 IVHNING PLANERFOR USE IN A GALLERY TRAVERSED BY A FAULT Karl Brandi, Bottrop,Westphalia, and Wullf Riisler, Essen-Margarethenhoehe, Germany,assignors to Gewerkschaft Eisenhuette Westfalia, Lunen, Westphalia,Germany This invention relates to new and useful improvements in miningplaners.

Mining planers such as coal mining planers, are knownv and comprise aplaner cutting head which is movable in either direction alongside alongitudinally extending conveyor. The planer head is provided withcutters for cutting in each direction, and is drawn back and forth alongthe leading portion of the conveyor.

The mining planer is particularly well adapted for a type of miningknown as long-wall mining and may be used for efficiently removing coalby the long-wall method and especially from narrow seams.

In operation, the planer conveyor is positioned along the mine face of along-wall panel in the mining gallery and rests on the mine floor. Theconveyor is composed of sections which are connected together so as toallow a flexing therebetween. The conveyor is urged toward the mineface, and the planer cutting head is drawn back and forth along theconveyor by means of a flexible traction element, such as a chain orcable. The drive for this flexible traction element is positioned at oneend of the conveyor, and the reversing means for the flexible tractionelement is positioned at the other end of the conveyor. The tractionelement such as a chain or cable thus passes from the drive to thereversing means, which, for example, may comprise a pulley, around thispulley, and back to the drive means. The planer head may be mounted on abase member which is drawn along the leading portion of the conveyorguided in relation thereto by means of the traction elements. The basemember and the planer head are first pulled in one direction along theconveyor to the end of the conveyor, then the direction of drive isreversed and the base member and planer head are pulled along theconveyor in the other direction.

As the planer cutting head is drawn back and forth along the conveyor,and the conveyor is urged toward the mine face, the planer cuts andturns or ploughs cut material in a substantially continuous manner intothe conveyor, which, in turn, continuously transports the material forremoval.

The flexibility of the conveyor allows it to adapt to the change incontours of the mine face and of the mining gallery.

As a rule, it is only considered possible and worth while to operate themining planer if there are undisturbed seams and a uniform coal vein.

If, as the planer advances, a fault is encountered which traverses thegallery diagonally, either the planing operation is completely suspendedor the planer head is only drawn back and forth from one end of theconveyor up to the fault. The drive and reversing means are still,however, located at opposite ends of the conveyor. With thisarrangement, however, the flexible traction element, such as the chain,may easily cause difiiculties. At the place where the fault occurs thechain will cut into the floor on one side, and into the roof on theother side, and, in so doing endangers the support 2,848,204 PatentedAug. 19, 1958 system such as the mine props, or even tears the same downcompletely. This is exceedingly troublesome and dangerous, since it isprecisely in the faulted zone of the gallery that the support system ismost important for the protection of the miners working .at the face. Inthe sectors of the workings, where the plane is not used for the cuttingand loading of the coal, the coal has to be cut by hand by the minersand shovelled into the conveyor. These additional manual tasks, however,are so laborious and expensive that the economic advantage which couldotherwise be achieved by the use of a planer are more or less lost.

It has already been proposed to obviate these difliculties by utilizingtwo separate mining planers in the gallery, one above, and the otherbelow the fault. Means are provided, as, for example, by use of anappropriate transfer device, so that the conveyor of one planerdischarges cut coal into the conveyor of the other planer. This methodof operation is, however, very troublesome and expensive, and requiresthe use of two complete mining planers in addition to the transferdevice.

One object of this invention is to overcome the abovementionedditficulties encountered in a mining gallery traversed by a fault. This,and still further objects, will become apparent from the followingdescription, read in conjunction with the drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic vertical section showing a gallery traversed bya fault and the positioning of the mining planer in accordance with theinvention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view, partially in section, showing an embodiment of amining planer conveyor and reversing means in accordance with theinvention;

Fig. 2a is a plan view, partially in section, showing an embodiment of amining planer conveyor and reversing means in which the reversing meansis connected up by two chains to the traveling conveyor band of theconveyor;

Fig. 2b is another plan View of the embodiment of a mining planerconveyor and reversing means shown in Fig. 2a, showing one of the chainsin tension;

Fig. 3 is a cross-section of Fig. 2 through the section line 33;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of another embodiment of a reversing means inaccordance with the invention showing a pawl locking device; and

Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are plan views of various complete planer structuresshowing drive means and reversing means and a planercutter movabletherebetween.

In accordance with the invention when operating in a mining gallerytraversed by a fault, the conveyor is positioned along the entire lengthof the gallery and thus passes through the faulted zone, and the path oftravel of the planer cutting head is limited to a portion of the lengthof the conveyor outside of the faulted zone by providing a drive orreversing means for the flexible traction element of the planer betweenthe ends of the conveyor.

In this manner, for example, the conveyor may be provided with the drivefor the flexible traction element at one end, and the reversing meansfor the flexible traction element, as for example, including a pulley orwheel, may be positioned along the conveyor between the drive means andthe fault adjacent to the fault. The

exible traction element will extend from the drive to and around thereversing means and back to the drive. The planer cutting head will bedrawn along the conveyor between the drive and the reversing means.

It is also possible to provide separate planer cutting heads on the sameconveyor at diflferent parts thereof. Thus, for example, in addition tothe set-up as described above, the conveyor may be provided with anadditional drive at its other end and additional reversing meanspositioned between this additional drive and the other side of the faultadjacent to the fault. The additional planer head is to be moved backand forth between this additional drive and reversing means.Alternatively, the positions of the drive and the reversing means may bereversed with the drive positioned in the central portion of theconveyor and the reversing means at its end.

The drives and/ or reversing stations which have been provided betweenthe ends of the conveyor for the planer cutters moving over differentsectors of the workings may be adapted to form one working unit orgroup.

The end portions of the conveyor are generally constructed assubstantially rigid units, while the individual sections of the conveyorbetween the ends are usually connected pivotally relative to oneanother. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, theindividual conveyor sections which are pivotally relative to oneanotherare advantageously connected substantially rigidly to oneanother, at least in a horizontal plane at the portion, between the endsof the conveyor, at which the additional driving or reversing stationsfor one or more of the planing cutters is arranged.

It is preferable to design the drive or reversing means arranged betweenthe ends of the conveyor, so that the same may be displaced without anygreat difliculty along the length of the conveyor. This may be effected,for example, by a locking device or mechanism which may be clamped tothe conveyor by being pulled by the flexible traction element whichdraws the planercutting head back and forth.

Referring to the drawings, as shown in Fig. 1, the coal scam in istraversed by a fault 11 and the two parts of the mining gallery 12 and13 of the seam are staggered vertically by a small amount relative toone another. A conveyor 14, which has sufiicient vertical flexibility,is guided through the faulted zone. The conveyor may have any known orconventional construction which allows this flexibility. Conventionaldriving stations are provided at each end of the conveyor. The drivingstation at the right hand and of conveyor is designated 24 and anidentical driving station not shown is positioned at the left hand endof the conveyor. Each of the'gallery sections 12 and 13 are providedwith separate planer cutting heads. The flexible traction element intheform of a chain 15 extends from the driving station for the end ofthe conveyor 14 located in the gallery portion 12 around the reversingmeans 17 and back to the driving station.

The flexible traction element in the form of a chain 16 for the planercutting head operating in the portion of the gallery 13 extends from thedriving station attached to the end of the conveyor 14 in the portion 13to and around the reversing means 18 and back to the driving station.Alternatively, of course, the reversing means 17 and/or 13 may representdriving stations, in

which case the reversing means would be positioned at the end of theconveyor.

The cutter head in the portion of the gallery 12 will move back andforth between the end of the conveyor and reversing means 17, and cutand plough coal from the mine face into the conveyor 14.

The cutting head 23 operating in the portion of the gallery 13 willoperate between the other end of the conveyor and the reversing means 18will also plough coal from the mine face into the conveyor.

With this -construction,*the miners working in the zone of the fault arenot in any way hindered by the planer cutting heads. The material cut byboth of the planes is passed into the same conveyor 14, whichcontinuously advances as the malls cut from the face. The conveyor isurged forward toward the face in the conventional manner, for example,by penumatic jacks.

Between the reversing means 17 and 18, the sections of the conveyor 14should be sufiiciently rigidly connected at least in the horizontalplane, so that this length A will be automatically carried along withthe other lengths of the conveyor as the same are moved forward into themine face. Care must be taken that the support system, consisting of thejacks and the like, which in the faulted zones is always of particularimportance, does not hinder the advance of the conveyor.

An embodiment of the reversing means which may be used at 17 and/ or 18is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. A reversing roller or pulley 19 is mounted ina box-shaped girder 20. The girder 20 is connected by two guide arms 21to a second girder 22, which bears on the opposite side of the conveyor14. The guide members 21 extend beneath the conveyor and are pivotallymounted to both the box-shaped girder 20 and the second girder 22. Thestructure is therefore in the form of a parallelogram, and the girder22, upon pivoting of the guide members 21 may move closer or fartherfrom the box-shaped girder 20, while remaining parallel thereto.

The flexible traction element used to draw the planer cutting head backand forth along the conveyor passes from the drive around the wheel 19and back to the drive. As tension is exerted by this traction element,as, for example, in the direction of the arrow 26, the guide members arepivoted at a greater diagonal position with respect to the conveyor andthe girder 22 is urged toward the girder 20 and both of these girdersexert a powerful clamping and holding action on opposite sides of theconveyor, and thus the reversing means is maintained in position.

If it is desired to shift the position of the reversing means, it ismerely necessary to pivot the guide members 21 in a direction so thatthe parallelogram formed by the members 21, 20, and 22 more nearlyassumes the shape of a rectangle. Thus the girder 22 moves away from thegirder 20, and the entire unit may be slid in either direction laterallyalong the conveyor 14. The unit comprising the reversing means may beshifted in a simple manner by being connected up by two chains 30, 31 asshown in Figs. 2a and 2b to the travelling conveyor band of theconveyor. One of the two chains 31 employed for shifting the reversingmeans is connected to the girder 20, and the other to the girder 22. Ifit is desired to shift the entire unit in the direction of the arrow 26,the chain 30 connected to the girder 22 should first be tensioned byconnecting the same first by having the same, in effect, shorter thanthe chain 31 connected to the girder 20. In this manner the clampingeffect ceases and the two girders may be dragged to the desired extentalong the conveyor without resistance. If it is desired to shift theunit in the opposite direction, the procedure, of course, is reversed.

In place of the clamping locking device as described above any otherclamping device may be used, as, for example, a pawl locking device asshown in Fig. 4. As shown the pawls 27 engage the rack 28 on theconveyor, and in all other respects this embodiment is identical to thatshown in Fig. 2.

In Fig. 5, a planer is shown which has a driving station 24 at one endand a reversing station 18 which is adjustable along the length of theconveyor. A flexible traction element, such as the chain 16, extendsbetween the driving station 24 and reversing station 18 and drivesplaner cutter 23.

In the embodiment as shown in Fig. 6, the reversing station 18 isreplaced by combination driving reversing station 28. In this embodimentthe station 28 or 24 may act as the driving station with other stationacting as a reversing station. Station 28 is adjustable along the lengthof the conveyor.

In the embodiment as shown in Fig. 7, which corresponds to a plan viewof the embodiment of the conveyor and planer shown in Fig. 1, drivingstation 24 is provided at one end of the conveyor and the drivingstation 29- at the opposite end. Two intermediate reversing stations 17and 18 are provided which are adjustable over the length of theconveyor. A flexible traction element 16 drawing planer cutter 23extends between the station 24 and station 18 and a flexible tractionelement extends between the driving station 29 and reversing station 17and drives the planer 25.

Though the invention has been described in detail with reference to thespecific embodiments illustrated, other embodiments and modificationswill become apparent to the artisan, which fall within the spirit of theinvention and the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a mining planer having a planer cutter movable back and forthalong the forward portion of a longitudinally extending conveyor bymeans of a flexible traction element driven between drive means andreversing means, the improvement which comprises the conveyor beingformed of individual conveyor sections, at least some of said sectionsbeing pivotably connected together for limited motion in a verticaldirection, and means for adjusting the position of one of said drivemeans and reversing means along the length of the conveyor whereby theconveyor may be extended through a fault with the drive and reversingmeans positioned on one side of the fault with the planer cutteroperated therebetween.

2. Improvement according to claim 1 in which the position of saidreversing means is adjustable over the length of the conveyor.

3. Improvement according to claim 1 including a second planer cuttermovable back and forth along a differ ent sector of the forward portionof said conveyor by means of an additional flexible traction elementdriven between additional drive means and reversing means, saidadditional drive means and reversing means being spaced from said firstmentioned drive means and reversing means whereby the other said drivemeans and reversing means may be positioned on the other side of thefault with said second planer cutter operated therebetween.

4. Improvement according to claim 3 in which the "individual conveyorsections between the two groups of drive and reversing means aresubstantially rigidly connected together in a horizontal direction.

5. Improvement according to claim 4, including means for adjusting theposition of one of the drive means and reversing means of each group ofthe drive means and reversing means along the length of the conveyor.

6. Improvement according to claim 5 in which one said drive means ispositioned at each end portion of the conveyor and said reversing meansare positioned between the ends of said conveyor in spaced relationshipto each other.

7. Improvement according to claim 1 including locking means for lockingthe movable one of said drive means and reversing means alongtheconveyor upon pulling actuation of the flexible traction elements.

8. Improvement according to claim 7 in which said locking means includesa girder on each longitudinal side of the conveyor pivotally connectedto each other by means of parallel guide rods extending beneath theconveyor.

9. Improvement according to claim 1 in which said reversing meansincludes a girder positioned on the forward longitudinal side of saidconveyor, a vertical wheel mounted on said girder, a second girderpositioned opposite to the first girder on the opposite longitudinalside of the conveyor, a pair of parallel guide rods having greaterlength than the width of the conveyor extending beneath the conveyor andpivotally connected to each girder.

